THE NEW SCHOOL EXAM.
Sta,—I hope the cogency of Mr. Yapp's article where it is relevant will not blind your readers to its errors where it is irrelevant. It is relevant about the disagreement of the universities among themselves ; for, by freely appointing each other's graduates as lecturers, they accept each other's conditions of entry as satisfactory, and make variations in these conditions merely comic. It is irrelevant in assuming (a) that the main aim of secondary education is to prepare university candidates, and (b) that the present school certificate is satisfactory. The charge against the present school certificate is that, by insisting on a wide range of subjects with a low pass or credit standard, and allowing early entry, it encourages syllabus-skating, cramming and shoddy work generally. It discourages careful thinking and thoroughness, and so has a laming effect on the minds of its victims. The proposed new examination avoids these dangers. For the great majority it is clearly better that subjects should be voluntary, so that they may be thoroughly done. If there is one over-riding principle of academic education, it is that everything done at all should be done thoroughly, with due thought and discussion, without rushing and without cramming. Special conditions within the exam. could and should be devised by the universities for university candidates.
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